Aural pleasure

I seldom give music credit for the role it has and continues to play in my life. I stitch to a soundtrack more often than not and my iPod’s wheel is well thumbed from the daily commute.

I met my husband through music – I was working on a publication that featured a regular cover album and he was contributing a track. We’ve had the opportunity to see some of our favourite bands playing live since moving to the UK. Ween, Tegan and Sara, Goldfrapp, Death Cab for Cutie and TV on the Radio are acts we’d never have seen in South Africa.

Music has the ability to take my mood and spin it 180° in the space of two or three songs. So to give credit where it’s due, I’m going to big up the artists that are rocking my world at the end of each post. Some may be new, others revisited. Either way, I hope they get your foot tapping.

Track of the week
LES Artistes off Santogold's self-titled debut album.

Chrismas cushions

I’ve had this fabric of leaves and berries in my stash for a year or two now, but haven’t found anything that would work well with it in a quilt. I’ve also been loathe to cut it into smaller pieces…

So in lieu of a Christmas tree, we have Christmas cushions. Both have green backings, but the smaller one has a zip and the larger has cherry red and white buttons. It’s been a (long) while since I stitched buttonholes, but my machine is computerised and pretty much stitches them for you.

King-size squares

Well, winter is here with a vengeance. We’ve had snow, frost, sleet, rain and ice in the past two weeks and it’s turned my brain to wool, figuratively speaking.

So I’m back on the crocheted squares that will one day become a king-size blanket for our bed. I now have nine 14x14” squares (funny how once you take up quilting, you start measuring everything in inches) and enough Rowan Soft Tweed left for about two more, which means I can almost go wool shopping again – I swore I wouldn’t buy more until I’d used up what I had.


I realise that 11 soft and tactile squares does not a king-size blanket make, but the wool was bought on sale – the last in stock – so this project is “as it comes” by necessity. I’m thinking of bringing in lemon yellow and crisp white, and grading the colours from top to bottom. The blocks will be joined so the half-treble rows run horizontally, vertically, horizontally…

It’s a simple but satisfying project for when you want to keep your hands busy while chatting, listening to a new album or letting your mind wander. Which is exactly what I did yesterday.